The central receiver power tower (CRPT) with a particle heating receiver (PHR) is a form of concentrating solar power (CSP) system with strong potential to achieve high efficiency at low cost and to readily incorporate cost-effective thermal energy storage (TES). In such a system, particulates are released into the PHR, and are heated to high temperature by concentrated solar radiation from the associated heliostat field. After being heated, the particles will then typically flow into the hot bin of the TES. Particulates accumulated in the hot bin can flow through a heat exchanger to energize a power generation system or be held in the hot TES storage bin for later use such as meeting a late afternoon peak demand or even overnight generation. Particles leaving the heat exchanger are held in the low temperature bin of the TES. A critical component in such a PHR system is the particle lift system, which must transport the particulate from the lower temperature TES bin back to the PHR. In our baseline 60 MW-thermal (MW-th) design, the particulate must be lifted around 70 m at the rate of 128 kg/s. For the eventual commercial scale system of a 460 MW-th design the particulate must be lifted around 138 m at the rate of 978 kg/s. The obvious demands on this subsystem require the selection and specification of a highly efficient, economical, and reliable lift design. After an apparently exhaustive search of feasible alternatives, the skip hoist was selected as the most suitable general design concept. While other designs have not been dismissed, our currently preferred somewhat more specific preliminary design employs a Kimberly Skip (KS) in a two-skip counterbalanced configuration. This design appears to be feasible to fabricate and integrate with existing technology at an acceptably low cost per MW-th and to promise high overall energy use efficiency, long service life, and low maintenance cost. A cost and performance model has been developed to allow optimization of our design and the results of that study are also presented. Our developed design meets the relevant criteria to promote cost effective CSP electricity production.
Particle heating receiver (PHR) based concentrating solar power (CSP) is widely recognized as the preferred path to reliable and cost-effective solar power. Use of solid particles rather than conventional fluids such as molten salts as collection and storage media, enables the operation of the PHR-based CSP plant at elevated temperatures (∼1000°C). This advantage leads to higher efficiency and lower levelized cost of energy (LCOE) produced by PHR-based CSP plants. However, designing and integrating the commercial solar power plant at high operating temperatures (∼1000°C), is a substantial challenge which has been overcome. Our research teams at King Saud University (KSU) and the Georgia Institute of Technology (GIT) have been working on the design and development of high temperature key sub-systems in PHR-based CSP plants. The proposed 1.3 MWe pre-commercial demonstration (PPCD) plant will incorporate the design evolved from our risk-reducing research activities performed at 300kW test facility at KSU and GIT. The DS-PHR of the PPCD will incorporate the KSU’s patented discrete-structured design in which the receiver will be enclosed in a cavity to minimize radiative and convective heat losses. Each PHR panel will have efficient particle flow control system for uniform particles outlet temperatures. Low-cost particulate materials with enhanced solar absorptance and resilience at high-temperatures have been identified to be used as heat collection and storage media. Inexpensive thermal energy storage (TES) bins will accommodate sand with temperatures ∼ 1000 °C. Multiple layered design of the TES bins will limit the heat loss to less than 1% per day (at scale). The current TES design allows easy access to the high-temperature bins for experimental observation and for future modifications. A patent pending skip hoist particle lift system design will be used for particle conveyance with expected mechanical efficiency of 75–85 %. Our lift design is simple, demonstrates autonomous operation with minimal mechanical complexity, minimized heat loss, and reduced maintenance. The heat exchanger proposed is a multi-pass shell-tubes design with high heat transfer coefficient. The design features discussed in this paper will lead to large scale commercial plants and similar small-scale designs for off-grid and remote applications at our anticipated service location which is in Saudi Arabia, and in Mideast and North Africa (MENA) region.
Thermal Energy Storage (TES) bins are considered critical components in particle heating receiver-based concentrated solar thermal power (PHR-CSP) plants. Their reliability and efficiency play an integral part in ensuring the commercialization of particle-based CSP technology. Heat loss/leakage from TES walls, particle erosion, thermal and structural stresses during charging/discharging, and hot/cold startup are some of the roadblocks that need to be addressed adequately before commercializing the PHR-CSP technology. To achieve this target, our teams at King Saud University (KSU) and Georgia Institute of Technology (GIT) have successfully demonstrated the multilayered TES bin in the past to store solid particles at a temperature of 700°C. To achieve a higher thermal efficiency of the plant, the particles are required to be heated at temperatures above 1000°C. This causes high thermal and structural stresses to the TES bin walls or layers. At such high particle temperatures, it is important to understand the material properties and interactions between different layers of the TES bin because each layer has different thermal conductivity and coefficient of linear thermal expansion. In this paper, the results of thermal and structural analysis on the TES bin design will be presented and interpreted as how the TES wall layers (insulating firebrick, insulating perlite concrete, expansion layer, and reinforced concrete) will interact with each other. This analysis is important to understand that how thermal and mechanical stresses affect, not only the materials but their interfaces as well. Moreover, it will provide an initial assessment of the TES bin’s thermal and structural integrity at high temperatures.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.